1 Southern Crescent Technical College Enhancing the Internal Service & Teamwork from Your Dept. Pete Tosh The Focus Group

2 The real objective of any business is to: Attract and Retain Customers

3 Everybody Has a Customer “If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is.” Karl Albrecht/Ron Zemke

4 When a member of a relay team passes the baton to a teammate, they are engaging in an internal customer interaction. What does the supplier need to make sure he/she does and/or knows? Why? ________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ How will this interaction affect the results of the meet? Why? _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ What are the similarities between this analogy and your department’s functioning? _____________________________________________________________ What’s an Internal Customer?

5 The “Default” Strategy: Keep Doing What We are Doing & Hope It’s Good Enough

6 What’s the Difference Between Manufacturing and Service Jobs? What Comes to Mind When We Analyze Manufacturing Job A vs. Service Job B? (Consider Skills Needed, the Type of Employees Who Will or Will Not Be Successful, the Impact of the Jobs On Customers, and What Is Required for Satisfactory Performance) Manufacturing Service Job A Job B

7 Products vs. Services Products 1.The customer owns an object. 2.The goal of product production is uniformity. 3.A product can be put into inventory. 4.The customer is an end user who is not involved in the production process. 5.Quality control consists of comparing output to specifications. 6.If improperly produced, the product can be pulled off the line. Services 1.The customer owns a memory. 2. The goal of service is uniqueness. 3.A service happens in the moment. 4.The customer is a co-producer who is a partner in creating the service. 5.Customers compare expectations to perceptions. 6.If improperly performed, planned recovery is usually the only effective means of recourse.

8 How Do Your Internal Customers See You? A Customer Report Card

9 1.Name your or your department’s primary customer(s). _________________________________________ 2.List the five (5) most critical factors this customer uses in evaluating your products and/or service: A. _______________________________________ B. _______________________________________ C. _______________________________________ D. _______________________________________ E. _______________________________________

10 3.Using the factors identified in #2, weigh each factor in terms of importance to this customer (the total needs to add up to 100 with the number increasing as the importance to the customer increases): FactorsWeight A. _________________________ ________ B. _________________________ ________ C. _________________________ ________ D. _________________________ ________ E. _________________________ ________ Total: 100

11 4.How would this customer evaluate your performance on each of these factors? (A through F and why) Factors Weight Customer Evaluation Why? A. __________ ________ ______________________________ B. __________ ________ ______________________________ C. __________ ________ ______________________________ D. __________ ________ ______________________________ E. __________ ________ ______________________________ Total: Your conclusions & strategy?

12 IMPORTANCEIMPORTANCE Improve Excel Performance PERFORMANCE Insert one item in each quadrant 15 5 Low Priority Redirect Low AttentionResources

13 The Gaps Model of Service Delivery Quality Service is: Closing the Service Gap

14 Your Customer’s Definition of the Quality of Your Service: The Discrepancy Between Their Expectations and Their Perceptions

15 Customer Expectations 1.Understand your customers’ expectations 2.Develop standards of performance in line with their expectations 3.Perform/supply service in line with your standards 4.Avoid creating unrealistic expectations/ over-promising Customer Perceptions

16 Questions Upon Which to Build Your Service Improvement Plan 1.How Can You Know What Your Customers Expect? 2.How Can You Ensure that the Proper Standards Are Set? 3. How Can You Ensure that Your Standards are Met? 4.How Can You Avoid Having False Expectations Sent? Do Your Customers Get What They Expect?

17 The Most Important Dimensions of HR Service Quality  Tangibles - Appearance of office, personnel, products, materials, etc.(What the Customer Sees)  Reliability - Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (Keeping the Promise)  Responsiveness - Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (Readiness to Serve)  Assurance - Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence (“I Made the Right Choice.”)  Empathy - Caring and individualized attention provided to customers (Commitment to the Customer)

18 What Do Your Customers Use to Evaluate Their Experiences with Your Dept? Tangibles: Reliability: Responsiveness: Assurance: Empathy:

19 ____ Tangibles Why?______________________ ____ ReliabilityWhy?______________________ ____ ResponsivenessWhy?______________________ ____ Assurance Why?______________________ ____ EmpathyWhy?______________________ Evaluate the Service from Your Department: As You Think Your Customers Would & Why? Poor Less than Average/ Above Outstanding Satisfactory Satisfactory Average

20 You Are Constantly Creating Experiences for Your Customers What Feelings & Reactions Have You Had When You Were a Customer? Buying a Car? Ordering a product or service from a supplier? As a patient in a doctor’s office or hospital? Having dinner in an up-scale restaurant?

21 When Do Your Customers Have Experiences When Interacting with Your Department? What Feelings are Created? How Can You Know?

22 Improving Any Moment of Truth Standard Expectations: expectations that must be met to receive a passing grade from a customer Experience Detractors: incidents that leave a customer with a less-than-positive assessment Experience Enhancers: organizational initiatives that would cause customers to feel that their expectations were exceeded

23 Cycle of Service Map Moments of Truth - in the Sequence in Which Your Customers Experience Them

24 Designing Service Standards for Your Customers’ Experiences 1. Agree on a Cycle of Service that your customers experience 2. Flow chart the Cycle of Service 3. Identify within the Cycle one Moment of Truth where there is likely to be misery created for your customers 4. For this misery point write Standards of Performance which define quality service performance

25 Means of Providing Value to Your Customers Interpersonal: interactions your customers have with your team Procedural: processes you ask your customers to go through when doing business with your dept Informational: providing customers the information they want & need Environmental: the tangibles & physical setting around which your customers experience your service

26 Which Means of Providing Value Can You Enhance & How? Interpersonal: interactions your customers have with your team ____ Procedural: processes you ask your customers to go through when doing business with your dept ____ Informational: providing customers the information they want & need ____ Environmental: the tangibles & physical setting around which your customers experience your service ____

27 Individually write a question that you’d like to ask. As a team decide on a spokesperson & agree on two of the questions that your team wants to ask. and

28 Enhancing the Quality of Service from Your Department What you do is more important than what you say. Do something. Start somewhere & follow your nose. Providing quality service is a process – implement many small initiatives vs. big events. Keep up your efforts. Cultures change slowly. Think of how long it took to develop the culture your dept. has now. What you do is more important than what you say. Do something. Start somewhere & follow your nose. Providing quality service is a process – implement many small initiatives vs. big events. Keep up your efforts. Cultures change slowly. Think of how long it took to develop the culture your dept. has now.

29 Please outline the Action Steps you plan to initiate. Action Steps: Date to Specific StepHow MeasuredBeginComplete 1.________________________________________ 2.________________________________________ 3.________________________________________ 4.________________________________________ 5.________________________________________ Signed________________________Date_________________ Your Preferred Future

30 Pete Tosh The Focus Group www. Thefocusgroup.biz